Title

Author

Defense Date

2004

Document Type

Thesis

Degree Name

Master of Fine Arts

Department

Painting and Printmaking

First Advisor

Dr. Javier Tapia

Abstract

Shape, color and line are three basic elements I use to explore the possibilities of visual language. The process in itself is important since what is left on the paper are simply records of moments from which a work is constructed. These moments are mixtures of my memory, my everyday observation, my struggles and hopes. The starting point is always in between known and unknown, and it is always a new attempt for clarity. Rather than expressing what I already understand and know, I have a need to change my working methods quite often in order to expand my own limits. Since I moved from Serbia into the United States in 1997, landscape has been evident in my work. However, my thinking about landscape has gradually changed. I understand now that this transformation parallels both my physical and emotional transition from my homeland to America. A sense of displacement has been present through all the processes, but its meaning and how it is reflected in my work has changed. From describing the actual, physical displacement from my homeland in the earlier works, the sense of displacement now comes from the abstracted formal elements of the work itself.